New fund to help low-income storm victims

Although many who live in a Hudson Street apartment building in Hackensack went through harrowing experiences during superstorm Sandy, they survived the ordeal — but now face a new set of challenges.

Dwayne Walker and his wife, Claudine, who is five months pregnant, were flooded out of their Hackensack apartment during the storm.

They’re homeless, nearly all had their cars totaled by the flood and those who lived on the first floor lost all their possessions.

And, now, one of Bergen County’s leading charities is mobilizing to help them and other hard-pressed victims of the storm.

One who could be helped is Kerisha Grant, who stood on her bed, kicked out her bedroom window and jumped into a courtyard as the floodwaters from the Hackensack River began rushing through the front door of her apartment at 340 Hudson St. Sandy was just hitting the coast, pushing a wall of tidal water back up the river and onto the streets.

The water was already above her knees as she climbed up on the handrail of the staircase to the second-floor balcony and scrambled to safety. Then she realized that her elderly next-door neighbor — a woman she knew only by her first name, Helen — and Helen’s son were trapped in their apartment.

She began screaming for help, and her upstairs neighbor, Dwayne Walker, quickly responded, jumping into the water.

"I’m 6-3 and the water was up to my neck," Walker recalled. He forced his way into Helen’s apartment while another man fought to hold the door open against the raging water to keep them from being trapped.

"She was standing on a couch holding her cats," Walker said. Furniture and the refrigerator were floating around the room. Walker grabbed Helen, carrying her and her cats to safety.

Another man picked up Helen’s son and moved toward the door — only to find his escape blocked by the floating debris.

"He handed me her son and I carried him out. Then I went back and moved some of the furniture out of the way so the other guy could get out," Walker said.

Peering into the dark water from the balcony above, Walker’s wife, Claudine — who is five months pregnant — was terrified.

"I was just thinking I want him to live to see his unborn child," she recalled.

Only when the men emerged up the staircase did Claudine feel herself breathing again.

The Bergen County Community Action Partnership in Hackensack is coordinating a new statewide fund geared to address those needs among low-income victims of the storm. The Sandy Aftermath Fund for Economic Recovery — or SAFER — is being pulled together by Community Action programs around the country.

The fund got off the ground with an initial grant from the investment bank Goldman Sachs and has raised $135,000. The 1st Bergen Federal Credit Union, an arm of Bergen County CAP, has committed an additional $150,000 for no-interest loans. Bergen County CAP Executive Director Robert F. Halsch Jr. said he hopes to raise at least $1 million.

"We think there’s going to be an awful lot of circumstances where the existing relief and recovery system does not trickle down to low-income people," Halsch said. "A lot of them don’t own their own homes. Many can’t afford the cost of comprehensive car insurance coverage, so they won’t be covered for the loss of their vehicles."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide some grants to compensate renters for the loss of personal property and even short-term rent subsidies, but it won’t cover security deposits.

"Some FEMA funds will be available, but it’s unclear how much and how fast," Halsch said. "Our priority will be to move money quickly and fill the gaps."

Security deposits

Finding funds to pay for apartment security deposits is likely to be one of those gaps. "A lot of people lost their deposits, and they just don’t have the money to come up with another two months’ rent in advance," he noted.

That’s what Grant and the Walkers say happened to them after municipal officials ruled the building was no longer habitable.

The Hudson Street tenants said they haven’t gotten their security deposits back and don’t have the cash for deposits on new apartments.

"We found an apartment in Hackensack we’d like to move into, but we don’t have the money for another security deposit," Claudine Walker said, adding that the couple is living temporarily at her sister’s home in Teaneck.

Getting moved into a new home is especially critical because of medical complications that have cropped up with her pregnancy, she added.

"I most likely won’t be able to work after I see the doctor on Nov. 26, because I will need to be on complete bed rest," said Walker, who works as a computer technician at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale.

To complicate matters further, her husband, a part-time dietary aide at Hackensack University Medical Center and a student at Bergen Community College, recently enlisted in the Navy.

"I’ll be gone in a few months," Dwayne Walker said. "So you can see the urgency to get her stable."

Because their apartment was on the second floor, the Walkers were at least able to salvage their possessions. And while their cars were wrecked by the flood, they had insurance to cover the damage.

That wasn’t the case for Grant.

"I lost everything," said the 30-year-old nursing student at the HoHoKus Hackensack School of Business and Medical Sciences. "I have no clothes, no furniture. Fortunately my school gave me a new set of textbooks."

Her car was wrecked and her insurance won’t pay to fix it — which makes commuting to school and her weekend job as a home care aide a challenge.

"I’m staying on a couch with friends in New York," Grant added, choking back tears. "I’m asking people for rides, trying to figure out how I’m going to get back and forth to Hackensack."

The Walkers have already applied for a SAFER grant. Their former downstairs neighbor said she was about to do so.

"I’m going to call them as soon as I hang up the phone with you," Grant said.

Although many who live in a Hudson Street apartment building in Hackensack went through harrowing experiences during superstorm Sandy, they survived the ordeal — but now face a new set of challenges.

They’re homeless, nearly all had their cars totaled by the flood and those who lived on the first floor lost all their possessions.

And, now, one of Bergen County’s leading charities is mobilizing to help them and other hard-pressed victims of the storm.

One who could be helped is Kerisha Grant, who stood on her bed, kicked out her bedroom window and jumped into a courtyard as the floodwaters from the Hackensack River began rushing through the front door of her apartment at 340 Hudson St. Sandy was just hitting the coast, pushing a wall of tidal water back up the river and onto the streets.

The water was already above her knees as she climbed up on the handrail of the staircase to the second-floor balcony and scrambled to safety. Then she realized that her elderly next-door neighbor — a woman she knew only by her first name, Helen — and Helen’s son were trapped in their apartment.

She began screaming for help, and her upstairs neighbor, Dwayne Walker, quickly responded, jumping into the water.

"I’m 6-3 and the water was up to my neck," Walker recalled. He forced his way into Helen’s apartment while another man fought to hold the door open against the raging water to keep them from being trapped.

"She was standing on a couch holding her cats," Walker said. Furniture and the refrigerator were floating around the room. Walker grabbed Helen, carrying her and her cats to safety.

Another man picked up Helen’s son and moved toward the door — only to find his escape blocked by the floating debris.

"He handed me her son and I carried him out. Then I went back and moved some of the furniture out of the way so the other guy could get out," Walker said.

Peering into the dark water from the balcony above, Walker’s wife, Claudine — who is five months pregnant — was terrified.

"I was just thinking I want him to live to see his unborn child," she recalled.

Only when the men emerged up the staircase did Claudine feel herself breathing again.

The Bergen County Community Action Partnership in Hackensack is coordinating a new statewide fund geared to address those needs among low-income victims of the storm. The Sandy Aftermath Fund for Economic Recovery — or SAFER — is being pulled together by Community Action programs around the country.

The fund got off the ground with an initial grant from the investment bank Goldman Sachs and has raised $135,000. The 1st Bergen Federal Credit Union, an arm of Bergen County CAP, has committed an additional $150,000 for no-interest loans. Bergen County CAP Executive Director Robert F. Halsch Jr. said he hopes to raise at least $1 million.

"We think there’s going to be an awful lot of circumstances where the existing relief and recovery system does not trickle down to low-income people," Halsch said. "A lot of them don’t own their own homes. Many can’t afford the cost of comprehensive car insurance coverage, so they won’t be covered for the loss of their vehicles."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide some grants to compensate renters for the loss of personal property and even short-term rent subsidies, but it won’t cover security deposits.

"Some FEMA funds will be available, but it’s unclear how much and how fast," Halsch said. "Our priority will be to move money quickly and fill the gaps."

Security deposits

Finding funds to pay for apartment security deposits is likely to be one of those gaps. "A lot of people lost their deposits, and they just don’t have the money to come up with another two months’ rent in advance," he noted.

That’s what Grant and the Walkers say happened to them after municipal officials ruled the building was no longer habitable.